Radio Production Progress: Final Piece!

Today is the hand in date for the Group Radio Project! Our radio as you have read on previous blog entries was about Banksy, we included and introduction/history,  interview and finished with a concluding section. The music we used was Teardrop by Massive Attack.

Here is the MP3 version of our group radio piece:



Here is the link to download the original WAV file

In comparison to professional pieces, I think it is clearer that we recorded in different locations as the same voice sounds different. The other thing that could be better about ours is the levels, as at points the music drowns the voice.

Other than that I am really happy with our piece, especially in terms of content. I think we chose an interesting subject and conveyed it in a manner that appeals to young people who would listen to student radio.

An Afternoon With The BBC...

I arrived over at Bath Uni at 1.30 and was briefed with the other 3 people on the "Production" team with events co-ordinator at the university Kate Pizzey who then introduced us to some of the BBC staff and specifically a woman called Steph (I didnt catch her last name). She took us over to the GB Wheelchair Basketball Team and two of the BBC Points West presenters (Will Glennon and John Maguire)  in order to sort out our role for the show. They were preparing for a section of the show where the "amateur" news presenters would take on the professional wheelchair basketballers.

What surprised me at the start was how close and friendly everyone on the BBC team was from the presenters to the crew thay were all very friendly and on first name terms.

At around 2.30pm they began the dress rehearsal, another thing I noticed here was that the flexibility on the show. Though they had a set script and quite strict timings, it turned out setting up the wheelchair basketball set took longer than the script allowed and as it was a live show the presenters had to come up with more to fill the time.

When it came to the real show our group were assigned the extra task of clearing the set after the choir sung during the opening. Though our "starring" role was setting up the wheelchair basketball as smoothly as possible behind the presenting of another award.

Though our role wasnt very big it was really interesting just to be there, see the amount of work and people needed to make the show run smoothly. They had big screens at either end and I picked up on the interview shots used that we learnt earlier on the course. Technically speaking too it all ran very smoothly in terms of correct mic output. At times some of the levels were low but that was mainly when the presenter was sharing the microphone with the interviewee.

I feel like I got a lot out of observing the day and would love to be a part of further productions like this.

Pictures of all the winners can be found here on the BBC West website and a video round up of the show can be found here.

Radio Production Progress: Final Editing

Today we completed our editing of One Nation Under Art: Banksy!





After using the Automation tool on Logic Pro, we Merged our audio tracks down to one track and exported it as a WAV file.

Happy days!

The only thing we have left to do now is submit the file for assessment by Tuesday =]

Radio Production Progress: Editing Session

Monday 30th November

Today we met up in the Gatehouse and assigned ourselves sections of our recordings to edit. I took the Introduction and Conclusion, Carlina looked at the History/Bio Section and Ant has started work on the Interview section.

We have each worked through and basically edited our sections for breaths, pops and any slip ups.

Our next stage is to piece all of the pieces together and set the levels with the backing track.

As an extra play around I took a piece of recording Carlina did of the phrase "One Nation Under Art" and put it through various filters to try and add something to our current jingle. We did not end up using it as it sounded too much "like a Dalek" but it gave me a chance to have a go with the different filters and how they affect audio.

I applied distortion, modulation and pitch shift but the final product wasn't really fitting with the ambiance of the rest of our radio piece.

Final Cut Pro

In todays session using Google Documents  I created an instructional slideshow on the basic tools/uses with Final Cut Pro.

We used screen shots from Final Cut Pro using clips loaded onto the Macs.

Google Documents

As a class in Tuesdays session we created a collective document using Google Documents.

Here is a video from You Tube explaining basically the purpose of Google Documents:



This is our final slideshow about copyright...I think the fluffy cat adds that certain something to the presentation!

Radio Production Progress: Team Meeting 24th Nov

Tues 24th Nov, 2.15pm, Gatehouse

Present: Ant, Carlina, Kirsty

Not Present: N/A

Progress Summary: K had no replies from any of the teachers contacted at Sion Hill, so having to re think interviewees. Chosen 2 students (as it is still fitting with being a student radio production)

Action Points:

• Sort out when and who is booking out equipment
• Have recordings done by the end of the week
• Plan what we want to include in the summarising minute of the programme

Next Meeting:  Fri 27th Nov